Spacecraft Propulsion Systems

Atomic Rockets website provides a “cheat sheet” readers can use to get an overview of the types of nuclear and other exotic engines that might be used for interplanetary space travel, list dozens of types of propulsion systems along with thrust power, exhaust velocity, specific impulse, thrust, engine mass, and more.

Being knowledgable and skilled in rocket technology requires a technical mind and a technical background. John Bucknell of Icarus Interstellar has worked for Elon Musk at SpaceX and on engineering teams at Chrysler and General Motors.

A Roadmap to Interstellar Travel

Icarus Interstellar (II) which works with the British Interplanetary Society, the Institute for Interstellar Studies, Tau Zero Foundation, Global Starship Alliance (GSA), Star Voyager, and Earth 2 Hub, explores projects that focus on making interstellar travel a reality. They currently have the following projects ongoing:

Focused on “beamed propulsion,” which II describes as “Laser and microwave propelled sails are a new class of spacecraft that uses photon acceleration. Its key virtue is that the propelling beam stays behind, on Earth, but more likely in space the beam accelerates the sail and its payload to high speed.”

Focuses on “the application of living technologies such a protocells, programmable smart chemistry, in the context of habitable starship architecture that can respond and evolve according to the needs of its inhabitants.”

Focuses on “visionary and scientifically rigorous research to ascertain how the known limits of propulsion and power physics for space exploration can be surpassed, and to implement technology breakthroughs that can be approached using credible experimentation and engineering solutions.”

Asks “how are we to understand civilization, so that we can form an idea of its future permutations, and perhaps even to assert a measure of control over what we are to become? There is no science of civilization, and if there is a philosophy of civilization it is nowhere as focused and disciplined as, e.g., epistemology or ontology.”